The church must hold leaders accountable —Cleric

REVEREND Nathan Chiroma of Jos Theological Seminary, Plateau State, has said that the church must be ready to hold public office holders accountable in order to ensure that they respond to the current economic situation in the country.

Delivering a speech with the theme: “The Church’s Response to Nigeria’s Present Economic Situation” at the 52nd graduation ceremony of ECWA Theological Seminary, Igbaja, Kwara State, last weekend, Reverend Chiroma said what Nigeria needed to survive the present economic hardship was selfless leaders.

“The reason we are in this big mess in Nigeria is because of greed. The church must be able to address the problem of greed. But for our greed, the resources in Nigeria is enough to sustain us and even the whole of Africa without foreign aid. As the church, we must address issues relating to greed in our lives before we can respond to the problem of economic recession in the country,” he stated.

Also speaking, the Chairman, Governing Board of the College, Elder Samson Ameh Opaluwah, prayed that God would grant the graduating students the grace to be agents of transformation in the country.

“Unless the country returns to God and depends on His word, in addition to proficiently deploying our talents and abilities in all the traffic lane of life, we shall continue to run in circles without direction and without progress,” he said.

Earlier, the College Provost, Reverend Stephen Baba, thanked God for using dedicated people in the growth and development of the school, which he said had made the college to be in the forefront of biblical theology and pastoral ministry in Africa and the world over.

The college graduated 296 students across all programmes, out of which 28 were awarded Doctor of Ministry in church administration, pastoral care and pulpit ministry respectively.